Shipped cake disaster. Sad pictures.

My sister lives 2000 miles from me and is due with her first child in a few weeks. My mother decided to throw her a shower and get a "cake from the grocery store". "Noooooo!" I said! Let me make the cake and ship it! I've read about this, it can be done! And what a surprise it will be!

So I made the cake, was reasonably happy with it. Dowelled it to the board so it wouldn't slip around. Packed it in a cake box. Packed the cake box in a larger box stuffed with newspaper and styrafoam peanuts. Marked the box "fragile" and "this side up" on every side. The cake was still partially frozen when I left the house.

Got to the FedEx place and find out it's $96.79 to ship. But there's no turning back now, so I paid it, and explained to the guy what it was, and how important it was. He said there were no guarantees it would be kept "this side up" because it goes through machines.

FedEx delivered it right on time. My mom's roommate was arriving home at the time, and saw the delivery guy carrying it to the frong door on its side.

My mom opens the box, and it looks like the cake has been dropped off a 10-story building. Repeatedly. Then run over with a truck. Then kick dropped for good measure.

There was no saving it, as you can see. My mom had to go buy a "cake from the grocery store" anyway.

I've already contacted FedEx and filed a claim to get my shipping back. Words can't express how I feel about this....

The "before" pic is in my pics. Here's the "afters".

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Yes, well I never would have even thought of shipping it if I hadn't read that it could be done. This one goes into the category of "I read it on the internet, so it must be true."
I would be taking my lumps and not asking for a refund if my mom's roommate hadn't actually seen a living, breathing guy (not one of the machines) carrying a box marked "this side up" on its side.